The results of our first Video Challenge are in. And it didn't take long for Gizmodo readers to prove they're every bit as good with video as they are with still photos. Though...time lapses combine the best of both worlds.

WINNER and Lead Video - Never Satisfied

I have explored the idea of shooting time-lapse with a long time friend and talented artist who operates under the alias of NEVER (aka Never Satisfied) in Atlanta, Georgia. Never has been out of commission recently due to knee surgery followed by a nasty staph infection. While only partially recovered, he agreed to shoot for the time-lapse challenge. The artwork is titled "The rent is too damn high" and features a begging owl with droopy, drug induced eyes (prescribed pain killers). The inspiration for this creature came as a result of Never being in so much suffering due to his knee surgery along with his recent apartment hunting in NYC where he will be relocating later this month.

To complete the challenge, I built a team consisting of my business partner and co-founder @ UpThink, Erik Huber, along with fellow photographer Jeremy Stephenson. Michael Wynne generously volunteered his time to create an original piece of music for the project. Once we had the man power, all we needed was a safe location to capture Never. We picked a location in NW Atlanta at an abandoned warehouse that's far off the grid. This spot has been a favorite of mine in recent years due to mysterious tire dumpers filling the space. It's an environmental disappointment to know that all this rubber is being dumped by someone and I personally do not condone those activities. However, the vast sea of tires offered us a unique visual perspective for this project. To help portray the passing time during the day via visible light beams, we hiked into the location with a 1k generator and hazer. The visible light created by the hazer combined with the constantly changing wind flow through the space really brought the location to life. We shot bracketed RAW exposures, but steered away from using any HDRs in the final video in an effort to not get caught up in the overly tone-mapped trend amongst photographers these days. The bracketed exposures allowed us more freedom in post to create some variation within the edit. We shot with longer exposures (4-13 seconds) to emphasize the movement with motion blur. This side-project was a lot of fun for everyone involved. We did have a few technical issues during the shoot— such as getting our gas can (full of gas) stolen, the generator flooded mid-shoot, the 12v battery used with the Dynamic Perception dolly rig failed, and we ran out of light just as the artwork was being finished. Despite the minimal complications, we managed to finish the 45 second edit* and get it posted. - Doug Urquhart

Shot on a handful of Canon D-SLRs (5D MII, 7D, 5D, 400D)
Moco moves made possible with the Dynamic Perception dolly + TeleTrack pan/tilt head
Special thanks to PC&E Atlanta

Produced by The UpThink Lab for the 2011 Gizmodo Time-lapse Video Challenge, Photography by Doug Urquhart, Erik Huber, & Jeremy Stephenson. Artwork by MISTER NEVER SATISFIED. Original Music titled "Beautiful Mourning" created by Michael Wynne

Ice Flow

A few scenes from my next short called "Iceflow" about the movement of ice on the rivers/lakes/bays surrounding Rochester NY

Time and Space

Rather than shoot one glorious 45 second time-lapse with my 5D, I decided to carry around my GoPro and shoot as many possible moments of my life, then jam them all together into one visual barrage. With no LCD or viewfinder on your camera, much less any manual settings, its easy to set it up and do a quick lapse on the go. Its also much easier to hang out windows or put in tight spaces.

Image sequences were converted to ProRes Quicktimes using After Effects, edited in Premiere Pro, and back to After Effects for grading and adding the title.

Traffic

- Scott Riel

New York (almost) Minute

I came up with the idea of shooting time lapse of famous clocks around New York City at the same time over several days. It ended up being a little tricker than I had originally planned due to uncooperative weather, scheduling and clocks.
Shot using a Canon 7d with Canon lenses
18-55mm f3.5-5.6 USM
50mm f1.4 USM
75-300mm f4-5.6 III USM

5 second intervals with a mixture of 1 and 2 second exposures. I had a bit of a problem with flicker on certain shots which inspired me to purchase a Little Bramper which I wish I had for this. Assembled in Quicktime Pro edited in FCP.

Day to Night

Day to Night in the city that I love.
Nikon D700, NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR, Celestron Nexstar with L bracket for movement for the intro shot.

Hyper-Lapse

The first two clips are from a railroad track near the border of California and Nevada. Then a track/pan at the Granite Mountains. Then "walking the tripod" At the Cargo Muchacho mts. Star trails were done in After Effects.

Settings: Interval timer is not used and taken by continuous shooting. F number:F4.0-5.6. At daytime SS:0.5-1sec,ISO:100,using ND400 filter. At night SS:1sec,ISO:200-400. Tilt angle:7

Giant Dipper

Had some good weather so my friends and I went to Santa Cruz, CA to shoot. Had to sneak my camera on the Giant Dipper to get the shots (they told me to keep it under my jacket). A lot tougher to hold it still than I thought it would be so some of the shots aren't perfect but whatever.

Shot with a Canon Powershot SX30 IS using the miniature mode feature (mimics tilt-shift). Song is "The Ice Dance" by Bachelors of Science.

Snow, Sleet, Rain, Ice.

Strange result here with the two part snow/sleet/rain storm. Kind of cool seeing the snow get washed away even faster than it builds up.

Ugh, listen to me. Making these time-lapses is the only way I can keep myself going this winter. Medford, Massachusetts. Street view: 2/1/11 7:30am - 2/2/11 1:30pm Icicle view: 2/2/11 1:30pm - 9:30pm One photo every 5 minutes. Played back at 24fps. RAW color corrected version to follow if motivated.

Green Tea Pot

A short video which I shot and edited in a half of a day. Stills shot using EOS Utility PC Intervalometer. Camera was set to shoot a frame each 5 seconds - total amount of frames used is about 300.

Water Carnival

I snuck onto a private wharf to film this time lapse on the last day of the Gosford water front carnival. It was the second night in a row I had sat on the wharf. The previous night the time-lapse didn't work because of equipment problems. I was a bit worried about being caught on the wharf but as I was leaving I almost tripped over a fisherman sitting in the dark. "Catch anything" he asked.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Three common methods of transportation which at times can be chaotic, and when the motion is sped up it seems even more chaotic.

Red Roses Rebirth

Incredible inaugural Video Challenge! But the galleries below have even more great clips. (The new format is actually great for watching videos, if you haven't seen a video gallery yet.) Otherwise, you can go to our Vimeo group to enjoy them.

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